tvashtarkatena

So are farts, and I still find them hilarious. BTW, I'm on a Dell. Best cleavage in the GOP. Move On, Bill Maher! Mom votes Republican? Or maybe its her percolator...

Weapons of Missed Instruction

Oooh, one post too late for the one two punch. I hate when that happens, don't you? Now you run along and play with your emoticons, Ratskywatsky.

His 600 ship navy, for starters. You know, the one he started to build when I was in the navy? Huh? You get dumber with each post! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/600-ship_Navy From your own link: "The idea behind the 600-ship navy can be traced back to the Vietnam War....By 1978 Admiral James L. Holloway III concluded that the United States Navy had a very slim margin over its Soviet counterpart.[citation needed] Finally, in 1979, the takeover of a US embassy in the Iran hostage crisis, and the failure of a rescue mission in Operation Eagle Claw, heightened the sense that American military power was becoming more limited." To which I'll add... The 600 ship navy, the most expensive aspect of the Cold War military buildup, was an old idea that Carter pushed for and began funding in 1978. Reagan got much more funding for it during his term because the US was climbing out of its post Vietnam/oil shocks financial crisis that plagued the Carter administration. I think I would know. I war gamed at the Naval Academy using Carter's 600 ship doctrine in 1979. Why do you bother? Perhaps its just sickness or a personality disorder. Do you need some lunch money, too?

JayB's post was funny. The recycled version less so. What does the EcoChallenge Canadian team have to do with what we're talking about here? And second, in exactly what way is that belly dancer not a hottie?

His 600 ship navy, for starters. You know, the one he started to build when I was in the navy? School away, little one. And don't forget your lunch money.

Thatsa my home town, paisan! Thatsa where da speship drop me!

That only happens when Republicans are counting the votes in Florida. If Florida's the model, take the letter over to Evergreen Washelli.

That's a bit of a re-writing of history. Soviet failure in Afghanistan and burgeoning pro-democracy movements in client states had much more to do with their collapse than Carter's (Reagan continued and expanded it) military buildup. In addition, whatever influence Reagan had on the USSR was due to the rise of Gorbachev, who was uniquely receptive to some of Reagan's ideas. Their relations were quite friendly, as I recall. We didn't tell the soviets to fuck off (they had too many nukes pointed our way for that...unlike China, which never has)...we wooed them. At that point, leaders such as Gorbachev knew the gig, militarily and financially, was up anyway. Fast forward to China today. Our watered down response to North Korea's recent fireworks display illustrates the leverage we have over China. Not much. Our president isn't quite the diplomat Reagan was, to say the least. China has no Gorbachev. And China, unlike the Soviets, is far from collapsing. Change is most likely when you deal realistically with the world that is. As horrific as the events in Tibet may be, the US government couldn't give less of a damn. It's got its back against the wall in two failing wars. Iran's emerging as the #1 regional power (you can soon preface that with 'nuclear') in the middle East and the second largest oil producing nation. Much of that oil will likely go to, you guessed it, China. What, exactly, are we going to deny China at this point, when we say 'fuck off?' A dialogue with China about how bloody snow on the Tibetan plateau will smear their image during their coming out party in 2008 would probably do more good than a thousand hollow 'fuck you's'. If I were you, I'd hook up with whatever organization has made the most progress at making such a dialogue happen. My guess is that it's probably not cc.com.

Don't vote Republican for starters...

Sweet, now we know which one you are. Chauvinist. I beg your pardon? I firmly believe in equal rights for hot latinas. Conservative alien salsa-dancing Democrats unite!

quadrotyping, I believe. You know, if anyone's looking for a cause with some immediate, American-style gratification, we do have an election coming up. Canvassing to bring out infrequent voters will decide this one, as always. Plus, you can always continue the debate with your canvassing partner in between having various doors slammed in your face. It's fun! Anyone interested in getting infrequent voters to cast their ballots for the Dems in the Ballard area, PM me. We can use all the help we can get. Hot latinas welcome. Free copy of "Hegemony or Survival" to the one who gets the most infrequent voters to the polls.

I'm dying to know which one I am. Good luck with your boycott. I prefer working on issues closer to home where I actually, at times, get some measureable results.

Try learning how to dance. Want respect? Show some.

I suppose it would be an understatement to say that a response from me to Carl's "so American!" potshot would be, um, a bit unnecessary at this point. Where is the 'smoldering nuclear crater smiley face' emoticon on this menu?

With the subject line, you shouldn't be too disappointed that no one showed up for your party. You're right that there is wrong in this world. Are you right to consider your wrong the right wrong, and everyone else's the wrong wrong? You're making an assumption that everyone out here is sitting on their asses waiting for you to wake them up. We're not. If Tibet is your thing, there's probably a group out there that's got a focused way of doing something about it. join them. At the very least they'll probably have more effective ways to bring more people to your cause.

Let me drive the Mazda for a couple of months. That'll be all she wrote. For what it's worth: Due to tarrifs and emissions retrofits, Smart Cars, at about $25K per, cost $3K more than a Prius, get about the same or less gas mileage, and produce more emissions. (Two friends just ponied up for the Prius and did the research, I'm still busy destroying my Subaru). The Prius is designed to be really good on gas in city driving, but my friend also averaged 50 mpg on their recent road trip to Oregon.

Hey, that's only 30 bucks a month...cheaper than cable. WAY cheaper than my auto insurance. No matter. I'm gonna stick my nieces and nephews with the bill, anyway.

I've got a 160K on a Subaru and it's just broken.

Actually, it all depends on whether or not I'm the owner. Many of the systems in a hybrid are similar to those in a non-hybrid, so there's no reason to assume, battery system excepted, that they wouldn't last as long. Honda's Insight hybrid has been out for 6 years now. Different from a Prius in some fundamental ways, but still a good case study for how hybrids age. Many are just pushing that 100K mile mark right about now.

I am SO tired of all those illegals at Guantanamo milking our social services. When are we gonna wake up? We need to build a fence around Asia.

From the article: If there's a glaring fly in the ointment, this is it. Who gets 300K miles out of any vehicle? There's no inherent reason why a hybrid wouldn't last just as long as any other vehicle if the batteries were changed at appropriate intervals. A more credible study might factor in the extra energy required to do this rather than assuming a whopping 3:1 ratio in vehicle life. Use a 1:1 ratio, and the conclusions of the study come out quite differently. It's also not just about energy input, it's about carbon emissions. Cars account for about half of all carbon production. Auto plants use energy from power plants which, in contrast to cars, are fairly efficient in terms of their carbon emissions (and can be made more so at lower cost). Even if the energy required to produce hybrids and non-hybrids is comparable, manufacturing and using hybrids will results in lower carbon emissions in the long run.

This is kind of a weird rant, considering that a quick review of the thread shows that my comments were direct responses to other posters who did, in no uncertain terms, disparage the right to protest. I don't recall you being part of that particular exchange. Actually, I am an alien. Bravo if you don't give a shit. Again, my claim to be a true conservative, admittedly a gross oversimplification for brevity's sake, was in response to an anti-liberal rant by another poster, not you. It was intended to show that the gross assumptions being made by that poster were only that, assumptions, and in many cases, they are wrong assumptions. It might be a good idea to review the thread a bit before wasting a volley of keystrokes to redress a grievance or disagreement that doesn't exist. It's been a decent debate on a salient topic, so far. If you've got a viewpoint on the recent torture bill, I'd love to hear it.

My previous is retracted. Motorcycles are exempted from the requirement for mandatory insurance in Washington.

CONTRADICTION ALERT! Different tools for different fools. Oh, yeah? http://www.flickr.com/photos/60919971@N00/267212944/